<< Orgasm >>

The most important consequence of sexual orgasm is the abrupt release of the extreme tension which preceded the event and the rather sudden return to a normal or subnormal physiologic state after the event. In the mature male, ejaculation of the liquid secretions of the prostate and seminal vesicles, through the urethra of the penis, is a usual consequence of the convulsions produced by orgasm in those particular organs; and such ejaculation usually provides the most ready proof that the individual has passed through climax. But orgasm may occur without the emission of semen. This latter situation is, of course, the rule when orgasm occurs among pre-adolescent males and among females. It also occurs among a few adult males (11 out of 4,102 adult males in our histories) who either are afflicted with ejaculatory impotence (6 cases: 2 operative, 2 hormonal, 1 after severe illness, 1 in an apparently normal individual), or who deliberately constrict their genital muscles (5 cases) in the contraceptive technique which is known as coitus reservatus. These males experience real orgasm, which they have no difficulty in recognizing, even if it is without ejaculation.

Among pre-adolescent boys, however, and among younger females, orgasm is not so readily recognized, partly because of the lack of an ejaculate, and partly because the inexperienced individual is without a background from which to judge the event. In the younger boy there is no ejaculate because the prostate and seminal vesicles are not yet functionally developed, and in the female those glands are rudimentary and never develop. Nevertheless, erotic arousal and orgasm where it occurs among younger boys and among females appears to involve the same sequence of physiologic events that has been described for the older, ejaculating males; and many of the younger boys and most of the older females who have contributed to the present study have been able to supply apparently reliable records of such experience.

While climax is thus clearly possible without ejaculation, it is doubtful if ejaculation can ordinarily occur without a preceding climax. There are some (the implication is in Reich 1942; also in Wolfe 1942) who consider that this latter situation does occur, and not infrequently, among some males. Subjects are quoted who have had erections and who have ejaculated under conditions which they insist brought them no satisfaction. But in our histories there are many subjects who make similar statements. There are husbands who report unsatisfactory intercourse with unresponsive wives; there are other males who so characterize their intercourse with prostitutes; and there are males who insist that they are “not at all aroused” in the stray homosexual relations which they have. Most of these individuals do, however, erect and ejaculate in such situations; and these reports probably amount to little more than records of varying degrees of physiologic disturbance during arousal and orgasm; or they are merely evidence of minimal psychic components with good enough physical responses, or, sometimes, of good enough psychic reactions that are inhibited, disguised, or rationalized in order to evade moral responsibility for socially taboo behavior. To repeat: the biologist thinks of ejaculation as the product of the convulsions which result from the physiologic event commonly known as orgasm; and, except under laboratory experimental conditions (as in the direct, electrical stimulation of erectile centers in the spinal cord) it is difficult to understand what mechanisms could produce ejaculation without a precedent orgasm. The confusion in the literature seems to be the result of making the term orgasm and orgastic pleasure synonymous. It is, of course, quite possible to recognize many degrees of physiologic change, and many degrees of satisfaction among sexual experiences, and there are admittedly occasions when there is little pleasure accompanying an ejaculation. But we have no statistics on the frequencies of physiologic differences, or of the various degrees of satisfaction, and, in the present study, all cases of ejaculation have been taken as evidence of orgasm, without regard to the different levels at which the orgasms have occurred.

Behavior during orgasm varies considerably with different individuals just as all other aspects of sexual behavior differ in any population. The descriptions of orgasm in clinical texts, marriage manuals, and other literature are, however, remarkably uniform, partly because of each author’s limited experience, and chiefly because of his failure to search for variation in securing data from clinical subjects. In consequence, there has been little comprehension of the complexity of the problem involved in advising different persons about their sexual adjustments, and about sexual techniques in marriage. There is great variety among adult males; and, it is interesting to note, there is as great variety and the same sort of variety among pre-adolescent boys. One of our subjects, who has had contacts with certain males over long periods of years (as many as sixteen years in some cases), from their early pre-adolescence into their late teens and twenties, states that the particular type of orgasm experienced by a younger boy remains as his particular type into his adult years. The variation in pattern of orgastic response thus seems to depend, at least to some degree (and in the limited number of cases so far studied), on inherent differences in the biologic constitution of different individuals.

Our several thousand histories have included considerable detail on the nature of orgasm; and these data, together with the records supplied by some older subjects who have had sexual contacts with younger boys, provide material for describing the different sorts of reactions which may occur. In the pre-adolescent, orgasm is, of course, without ejaculation of semen. In the descriptions which follow, the data supplied by adult observers for 196 pre-adolescent boys are the sources of the percentage figures indicating the frequency of each type of orgasm among such young males. While six types are listed, it should be understood that all gradations occur between the situations which are herewith described.

Figure 01. Orgasmic patterns for pre-adolescent boys:
1. Without body tension and forcible throbs.
2. Some body tension with a few spasms.
3. Extreme tension with extended and recurrent convulsion.
4. Hysterical.
5. Extreme collapse.
6. Hypersensitivity before orgasm.

1.    Reactions primarily genital: Little or no evidence of body tension; orgasm reached suddenly with little or no build-up; penis becomes more rigid and may be involved in mild throbs, or throbs may be limited to urethra alone; semen (in the adult) seeps from urethra without forcible ejaculation; climax passes with minor after-effects. A fifth (22%) of the pre-adolescent cases on which there are sufficient data belong here, and probably an even higher proportion of older males.

2.    Some body tension: Usually involving a tension or twitching of one or both legs, of the mouth, of the arms, or of other particular parts of the body. A gradual build-up to a climax which involves rigidity of the whole body and some throbbing of the penis; orgasm with a few spasms but little after-effect. This is the most common type of orgasm, involving nearly half (45%) of the pre-adolescent males, and perhaps a corresponding number of adult males.

3.    Extreme tension with violent convulsion: Often involving the sudden heaving and jerking of the whole body. Descriptions supplied by several subjects indicate that the legs often become rigid, with muscles knotted and toes pointed, muscles of abdomen contracted and hard, shoulders and neck stiff and often bent forward, breath held or gasping, eyes staring or tightly closed, hands grasping, mouth distorted, sometimes with tongue protruding; whole body or parts of it spasmodically twitching, sometimes synchronously with throbs or violent jerking of the penis. The individual may have some, but little, control of these involuntary reactions. A gradual, and sometimes prolonged, build-up to orgasm, which involves still more violent convulsions of the whole body; heavy breathing, groaning, sobbing, or more violent cries, sometimes with an abundance of tears (especially among younger children), the orgasm or ejaculation often extended, in some individuals involving several minutes (in one case up to five minutes) of recurrent spasm. After-effects not necessarily more marked than with other types of orgasm, and the individual is often capable of participating in a second or further experience. About one sixth (17%) of the pre-adolescent boys, a smaller percentage of adult males.

4.    As in either type 1 or 2; but with hysterical laughing, talking, sadistic or masochistic reactions, rapid motions (whether in masturbation or in intercourse), culminating in more or less frenzied movements which are continued through the orgasm. A small percentage (5%) of either pre-adolescent or adult males.

5.    As in any of the above; but culminating in extreme trembling, collapse, loss of color, and sometimes fainting of subject. Sometimes happens only in the boy’s first experience, occasionally occurs throughout the life of an individual. Regular in only a few (3%) of the pre-adolescent or adult males. Such complete collapse is more common and better known among females.

6.    Pained or frightened at approach of orgasm. The genitalia of many adult males become hypersensitive immediately at and after orgasm, and some males suffer excruciating pain and may scream if movement is continued or the penis even touched. The males in the present group become similarly hypersensitive before the arrival of actual orgasm, will fight away from the partner and may make violent attempts to avoid climax, although they derive definite pleasure from the situation. Such individuals quickly return to complete the experience, or to have a second experience if the first was complete. About 8 per cent of the younger boys are involved here, but it is a smaller percentage of older boys and adults which continues these reactions throughout life.

Individual Variation
To summarize all, variations in the gross aspects of sexual response and orgasm may involve the following:
     (1) the amplitude of the muscular movements;
     (2) the particular parts of the body which are most prominently involved in the responses;
     (3) the speed of the muscular movements;
     (4) the number of pelvic thrusts or other movements which are made prior to orgasm;
     (5) the time which may elapse from the beginning of the activity to the peak at orgasm (and this may vary from ten seconds to an hour or two);
     (6) the magnitude and duration of the spasms which follow orgasm.

These variations offer endless possibilities for combination and recombination. Consequently the responses of each individual may be quite unlike those of any other individual, although the basic physiologic patterns of sexual response and orgasm are remarkably, uniform among all individuals, both female and male, and throughout all of the species of mammals.
It is commonly understood that there is individual variation in the conspectus of sexual response and orgasm, although it is only occasionally mentioned in the literature. But see; Roubaud 1876:16. Talmey 1915:95. Negri 1949:78, 82-83. Brown and Kempton 1950:207. Stone and Stone 1952:186.

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